Village Idiot

He seems pretty lost in the pitch. It's weird though, he associated quite well during the first months... dunno. He's just a completely different player now. And we need him.

How could I forget Wolfgang Wolf of Wolfsburg

Fun fact: Piqué and Milito, our centrebacks today, were Zaragoza's first choice CB pair in the 2006 season.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_01/PaulDickovGET_468x634.jpg

Big game for Zlatan by the way. His agent has been making noises about how disappointed he was about being dropped for the Stuttgart game (Zlatan has said nowt himself).

Xavi's injuried. Iniesta is being rested I guess, he's been playing nonstop for a while. I know our midfield doesn't look as pristine without them, but should be enough to take care of Zaragoza. They are a very poor side.

While googling Paul Dickov pics for the appropiately named footballers thread I got this thing, which for some reason I found hilarious: http://www.lcfc.com/javaImages/77/ed/0,,10274~6745463,00.jpg

By the way, if you are watching the Barça game, pay attention to Zaragoza's Ander. If he can sort out the physical part of his game he will be a Spanish international.

We need the appropiately named footballers thread for Paul Dickov, too.

Well, seems he's starting afterall. I hope he gets through it fine, we have Arsenal to fry.

Messi's a doubt. Most probably will be benched.

Darren Fletcher has been outstanding this season too. Really bosses the midfield for them. Wish he would start doing it for Scotland. Yes, him too.

Aye, I predicted ManU to be uber toss this year due to not replacing Tevez and Cronaldo (Owen, lol), but not only Rooney has stepped it up. The likes of Valencia, Park or Nani are having a great run since around January.

Bayern won the title last in 2008... surely not ages ago. Yeah, that's right... for some reason I thought their last title was the 2006 one

Pretty telling that Chelsea's loss of form has coincided with Essien's injury too.

The most complete striker in the world is 32 too. I don't know who's the modern day Zidane. Chelsea are on the verge of collapse, unless Roman feels like flashing the cash again.

Chelsea looked so untouchable at beginning of the season, and look to be imploding as of late. That's football I guess

Well, Roberts is a striker too. A dogshit one, but a striker.

Gotta love the Bundesliga, Bayern has always been up there but haven't won the title in ages, while the other candidates/winners change their form so much season to season it's ridiculous.

Roque Santa Cruz down injuried again, can this guy play two more than two games in a row?

Shearer aged 25 could have commanded a big, big, fee (breaking 50m+ if it was Real who set its sights on him!). It wasn't only his goals, he was one of the most famous English players abroad. Football was just starting to be a global media sport, and he was one of the first symbols of it. Gascoigne was also very popular in the early 90s, I remember having his videogame (which was shit).

Lennon, Cole, Becks, Defoe... quite many injuries all of a sudden for England!

Something that I appreciated when I became an ex-pat and stopped going to live games is that I tended to be less critical than when I was at the stadium. The editing, close-ups, etc... makes football look better than when you just have your two eyes and see wee guys in colored shirts running around (I always had seats up top). Of course, the fact that we won 3 leagues and 2 CLs since I moved out of Barcelona and we were pure shit before that might have something to do with it But I think TV has a big effect on how you see matches.

Yes, that's probably the best one so far.